One of the strangest stories I have heard recently about Indian food awards is how a Delhi restaurateur allegedly coughed up about ₹2 lakh to be eligible for a restaurant award by an Indian magazine (that I had never heard of) at an international ceremony. But he could not make it to the event. “He couldn’t afford to fly, after the expense and the costs of running the restaurant,” says a source close to him.
Having sourced said magazine out of curiosity, I was perplexed. Could even such a forgettable publication hosting a random awards show inspire such FOMO within the restaurateuring world?
If you follow restaurants and restaurant people in India, you must have noticed that it has been raining awards in the last few years. From just one or two well-established ones about a decade ago (that the F&B fraternity awaited annually), there are now countless small and big events cobbled together by fledgling publications, food groups, blogger networks, TV chefs and restaurant associations. So frequently do they sprout that they invite mild curiosity at best.
- Ashfer Biju
executive chef at The Pierre, NYC, and host chef of the James Beard Foundation Gala next month
"The biggest challenges of awards today are the lack of a process to ensure inclusion, and the qualification of judges who decide on them. Though awards are encouraging and have provided platforms to many chefs, I feel that food is too complex a field to have a single format process. Many awards today (especially the global ones) ignore great work just because the region is not considered, or the restaurant / food service does not fit into a certain format that is prescribed. For this reason, I am a fan of local awards — city or region specific. They tend to be more truthful to what is happening.
While some awards are paid for (often not directly but by way of “registration fees” and publicity packages), many are not. However, the latter seem to be plagued by other problems: of cronyism, juries lacking credibility and a please-all ethos, where merit gives way to random (or manipulated) selections. It is no surprise, therefore, that unlike the Michelin Guide, the James Beard Awards or the World’s 50 Best lists that inform dining choices internationally, the Indian public seems to pay no heed to domestic awards. When was the last time you visited a restaurant because it had won something?
“I am a full Michelin junkie,” exclaims designer Ashish Soni, a bonafide “foodie” who plans his holidays around restaurants he wants to dine in. In India, however, he says his choice comes from “word of mouth and reviews of people I respect, and sometimes from who owns them or who is the chef.”
Soni is an aware consumer following the dining scene closely. But not the average person. If the mushrooming awards are unable to offer credibility — as Luxortium’s Swapan Seth fumes when he says “at their plinth lies partisanship; the only interest is the vested one” — who are these awards really benefiting?
Is it the money, honey?
“Every month, I get approached to make an appearance at or host two-three food awards. By that estimate, there should easily be around 30-35 food awards in the country [that I know of],” says TV chef and restaurateur Saransh Goila, who sometimes charges organisers for his appearances since, as he candidly says, they leverage his social media presence. The attendance of celebrity chefs like him is crucial to attracting sponsors and creating a “buzz” around an event.
So what is the economics of hosting a food award? “You need about ₹12-₹15 lakh. The main expense is on the team that executes it and banqueting,” says Goila. The quantum of money organisers make varies with their model. Some charge registration fees from ₹15,000 to ₹50,000 per entry. While fees may not guarantee an award, restaurateurs investing higher sums naturally expect a certain pay back in kind, industry insiders say. Though everyone is tight-lipped, some things are open secrets: how categories often get expanded to accommodate as many ‘winners’ as possible because, as Goila points out, if there are 40 awards with each restaurant paying ₹50,000, you could make ₹20 lakh, plus sponsorship pay outs.
While many of these figures are anecdotal, this ‘business’ is reminiscent of paid awards in retail, as Arvind Singhal, chairman Technopak, India’s leading fashion, consumer products and food services consultancy points out. “These are awards for the [industry] people, by the [industry] people, where everyone can party together and feel good taking home a trophy. The consumer sees through them and is not bothered. Investors too look at a restaurant’s top and bottom lines to see if they want to invest in a project and not how many awards it has won. Neither is business impacted nor does any chef’s reputation get built by these,” he says.
Judging taste, creating buzz
Everyone wants to be the sole arbitrator of taste in this country. It is an ambition you can smirk at but not fault. The problem lies in the way things get done. Emails in our possession identify the 40-plus jury members of a food awards by a food channel last year — these include top hoteliers, restaurateurs with obvious conflict of interest (winning restaurants included those owned by panel members, though jury members were asked to recuse themselves where interests clashed), TV chefs (with shows on the channel run by the organisers), celebrities, and a sprinkling of ostensible “writers”. How many were truly cognisant of all the different chefs and restaurants working in the dynamic restaurantscape of the country, or had the ability to critique anything, is debatable. How many voted without favouring friends and business interests is also equally arguable.
There were about 100 awards given out in various categories — including to top five restaurants each in categories like coastal and north-west frontier cuisine (making it a total of 15 “best” Indian restaurants). In a country where you are hard put to recommend even 10 top restaurants for their consistency, attention to detail and culinary inventiveness (and I speak as a food writer who has been examining this space for 18 years), please-all awards like this cannot be taken seriously.
- The Foundation has an awards committee, which oversees three separate committees: one is responsible for journalism awards; one for broadcast media and one for restaurant/chef awards. The latter is composed of 18 food writers (full disclosure: me included) who serve as judges. Panellists and judges alike must agree to never accept free meals, work with restaurants or chefs in a professional capacity, or promote their status in hopes of securing special treatment. Typically, the Foundation receives thousands of suggestions. Each judge reviews the nominations for his or her region, and also polls the region’s panellists for ideas. Then s/he compiles a list of potential regional nominees and presents it to the committee at an in-person meeting. At that point, the committee debates for a week and produces what’s colloquially known as the Beard longlist. The longlist is sent to panellists around the country. In each category, five semi-finalists who receive the most votes advance to the finalist round. The same group then votes on the finalist ballot. In the case of a tie, the committee chooses the winner (or allows the tie to stand).
- — Hanna Raskin, jury, James Beard restaurant awards
If restaurateurs and chefs are awarding themselves, and if the process of judging is not as rigorous as some of the most respected awards internationally (see box on page 1) what is the point of such honours? Even restaurateurs whose establishments routinely win awards agree that they do not help much. “Awards used to make a huge and immediate difference 10 years ago, but now they have slower and much less impact,” says AD Singh of Olive Bar and Kitchen, one of the biggest restaurant groups, with much-awarded brands like Olive Beach and Toast and Tonic.
Some of the older awards by established media houses that follow journalistic processes of reviewing restaurants still command attention, but newer ones devoid of such checks and balances take away from the relevance of awards. Restaurateur Ashish Kapur — of Antares, Whisky Samba and The Wine Company — who along with his business partner, Joy Singh, had declared in the past that the group would not accept any more nightlife awards but will aspire for gourmet awards, says: “From a consumer and sales perspective, there is no effect from winning an award. But there is social media buzz. The perception of people changes; they think you are successful. It is a double-edged sword but sometimes with developers, when you are negotiating for space, this image may help,” he says.
When awards can matter
Credible awards, of course, have the potential to truly make a difference — inspire chefs, boost sales and even tourism to a region. “I remember the first time I got an award, it was such a big thing. If the recognition comes from a credible source it can mean a lot to any upcoming chef. Look at the World’s 50 Best list, which chefs and restaurant owners the world over hold in esteem. Even though restaurants keep going up and down the list, you don’t have chefs protesting. For any awards, the main thing is how to maintain credibility and that can only come from who your jury is and how rigorous the process of judging is,” says chef Manish Mehrotra of Indian Accent, which is ranked 30 in the Asia chapter.
- Gaggan Anand
executive chef at Gaggan, Bangkok, which is number 1 on the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list
Food awards should focus on ingredients and service, and definitely on the authenticity of the cuisine. Techniques could be modern or well-rooted, but the food must be a reflection of the chef and what direction s/he wants to go
The list is not without its detractors and has been accused of not being inclusive enough or “really” mapping the world’s restaurantscape. However, ever since its inception in 2002, it continues to be highly influential with food lovers around the world and is often credited with boosting gastronomic tourism to entire regions. The phenomenon of Scandi gastronomy (people going to Copenhagen to dine at Noma and other restaurants) for instance is attributed to it. This year, the Singapore Tourism Board has signed an agreement with William Reed Business Media (which owns the awards) to host the 2019 edition in the city, hoping to draw foodies, chefs and influencers there and boost the country’s profile and business.
Meanwhile, Michelin, which is yet to come to India and does not hold any awards ceremony, remains one of the most widely-believed systems of restaurant ratings in the world. Though it has been accused of a Euro-centric bias, the fact remains that the system of anonymous, professional inspectors meticulously judging a restaurant is still one of the most credible ways of rating.
Apart from recognising the best, these awards and ratings impact actual business too. “Anecdotally, it seems like the James Beard awards make the biggest financial difference to restaurants that aren’t in the realm of fine dining. For example, after Dong Phuong, a Vietnamese bakery in New Orleans, was named an America’s Classic last year, it had to suspend king cake sales because too many people were scalping them,” says food writer Hanna Raskin, a jury member.
For the Indian public to be similarly influenced and for restaurants to benefit from this, food awards need to find a way to ensure credibility. That may be easier said than cooked.
